Yes, the idea is that the gubb’mint would spend the extra tax money on The Best Alternatives(tm). The theory here is that thousands of years of tradition of government blowing the vast majority of its tax revenues would suddenly be cast off and you could sleep easy knowing that clueless politicians are disbursing your hard-earned dollars better than nobel prize winning energy physicists (or so the government says and wants you to assume).

What he said.

I don’t think a gas tax is necessarily a bad idea. Trusting the government to implement said tax and use it as directed is the problem. Maybe all we have to do is wait for the politicians to not run for reelection, and then they’ll “do the right thing.”

California has a gas tax.. added on to all the other gasoline taxes.. and it’s specifically to pay for transportation infrastructure, however every year that tax fund gets raided (like Social Security with the Federal Government) for whatever else is needed. The gas tax money never gets used for transportation infrastructure.

Now if Governor Kaine would’ve met his promise about giving localities more control over transportation infrastructure issues, like he promised during his campaign… then.. I might.. and that’s a big big might.. be willing to consider it.

The above links aside, when our politicians choose to not police themselves, as described in this article at the Washington Post, how can the people possibly be expected to support any decision our elected “representatives” make?

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About Jim Duncan

I am a Realtor/Broker/Partner with Nest Realty in Charlottesville, Virginia. The goal of this site/blog remains unchanged in the nearly 15 years since its founding – to provide clear, coherent, unbiased analysis of the Charlottesville area real estate market.